Horehound (CD - 2009)

Personnel: Alison Mosshart (vocals, guitar, percussion); Jack White (vocals, acoustic guitar, drums); Dean Fertita (guitar, piano, organ, synthesizer, background vocals); Jack Lawrence (guitar, drums, background vocals).

Audio Mixers: Jack White III; Vance Powell.

Recording information: Third Man Studio, Nashville, TN (10/2008-02/2009).

Photographer: David Swanson.

The Dead Weather, which combines the talents of Jack White, Jack Lawrence (Raconteurs), Alison Mosshart (Kills), and Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone Age, Raconteurs), aren't so much concerned with living up to expectations as they are about defying them. There's a different kind of alchemy on this 2009 release than on any of the bandmembers' other projects. Not only does White returns to his first instrument, the drums, he also trades in the high-pitched yelp he uses with the Stripes and Raconteurs for a deeper, at times unrecognizable, voice on "I Cut Like a Buffalo," the lone Horehound track he wrote by himself. The Dead Weather's sound isn't so much heavy as it is thick with a tense atmosphere that's sustained throughout most of the album, and the group shuns the tighter structures of their other bands for a bluesy, jammy grind.

This loose-limbed immediacy often feels like a particularly inspired rehearsal, especially on the cover of Bob Dylan's "New Pony," which gets amped up with huge grungy riffs and shouted backing vocals. This looseness also allows the band to indulge flights of fancy like the instrumental "3 Birds" and the menacing surf-jazz of "Rocking Horse." Given the fact that the Dead Weather formed on a whim and recorded these songs in a matter of weeks, this is a pretty compelling album, and one that shows that the band's members bring out the best in each other, albeit in unexpected ways. minimize